Birthday Months

It seems like there are many, many people born in the months of March and April. And as my friend remarked one day on Facebook, “I wonder what was happening in June?”

The girls have also been invited to a slew of birthday parties in these 2 months, and it’s been fun for them and rather tiring for me! Kids birthday parties are getting more and more elaborate and/or expensive, I feel quite bad that I totally had such a small simple 1st birthday for LittlerLam last year. And I did tell LittleLam that I’ve had it planning elaborate themed parties for her past 5 birthdays, so this year I’m just going to keep it simple. Or so I say. I think when the time comes I am likely to conjure up something again.

So anyhow, LittleLam got invited to a birthday party at Amazonia, which claims to be the largest indoor playground in Singapore. As I rarely allow her to go to indoor playgrounds (hotbed of diseases, I tell u!), she was soooo excited about the party that she’d keep taking the invite card and staring at the pictures and telling me, “Mummy, I wish the party was today!” weeks before the party. When the day finally arrived, I must say I was a little let down by the size cos I really thought it was going to be spectacular (see, power of marketing). But the giant slide was definitely a hit and even adults could enjoy a ride down quite easily. It’s a little scary for the younger kids, but I think the above-4yo kids were fine.

The big slide and the “amazon-like” theme

The actual celebration was held in one of the party rooms, and the staff handled everything, from food to photography to games. There were even special disco lights in the room!

In the next birthday party we attended, it was a 1-yr-old boy’s Dinosaur themed party which was the total opposite of the Amazonia one. Doing it commercially requires very little leg- (& arm & mind)- work, but a lot of money. Doing a party at home requires less money, but a lot more effort, time and planning! So it was with the Dino party where the whole extended family helped the Mom to cook, bake and decorate. The whole party was so well thought through, from ideas for food, playareas for the kids and babies and even baby food provided! And the best thing, the boy’s grandmother even sewed a bunch of dinosaur tails as doorgifts for the kids! Here are the girls playing with the tails, and check out the cute Dino homemade cake:

Christmas Activities at Sentosa

Littlelam really had an activity-filled December, which was both tiring and fun for me. We were glad to meet up with some of her previous playgroup friends — the girls she’s grown up with since she was about 18 months old – and we decided to head to Sentosa to participate in their Year End Holiday Activities, or rather, called ‘PLAY!

Chatting on the skytrain to Sentosa

We took a Skytrain from Vivocity to the Imbiah Lookout station, where we rushed up 4 flights of escalators to catch the starting of the ‘Storytelling Comes Alive’! show, which was hosted by Mervyn from Okto channel, and was a very ingenious interactive play. The first story was Little Red Riding Hood and the girls munched on KFC popcorn chicken while watching the show, which was free admission:

Watching 'Red Riding Hood' - or rather the Big Bad Wolf and the Narrator!

Next up, we signed the girls up for the Creative Kids Arts and Crafts Workshop, which had a 1 for 1 deal for Passion card holders, so we ended up with a Craft session AND a Baking session! All this for $8.

Workshop supplies

Kneading the cookie dough that they made

Cutting out a heart-shaped cookie

The cookies the girls made - ready to be baked!

Making a Christmas Apron: They traced out the outline of the tree, then stuck on sequins, fabric etc.. in their own chosen design to decorate the felt tree.

Littlelam's tree design

Just as I was packing up to leave at 5pm (because I really wanted to avoid the ECP jam), I suddenly realised that instead of helping me to pack, Littlelam had joined her friends and sat in the front row to watch the NEXT show which was Pinocchio. Next thing I knew, she had raised her hand when they asked for volunteers and was chosen to ‘play’ the part of the Blue Fairy. Obviously, I couldn’t possibly drag her off at that point! Haha! So we stayed till the end of the show, and I’m glad we did because the girls really enjoyed themselves.  The programme ran from 26 Nov to 26 Dec so unfortunately they’ve packed up the entire marquee and left. But if they do this again the next school holidays, I’ll definitely recommend it!

Christmas crafts

Ok, two days to Christmas and I realize I still have so many photos in my iPod touch of Littlelam’s Christmas crafts! So I shall attempt to upload everything here in a Christmas Craft bonanza post heh!

1) Christmas Clay ornaments

Littlelam has never played with white clay before, so we decided to let her have a stab at it. This kind of clay must be softened and worked with water, but after it dries it hardens into a porcelain- like item. Then the paint can go on, and if you have time, lacquer for a shiny finish. Littlelam was a bit apprehensive about the feeling of semi- dried clay on her hands, but after a while she got used to it and had fun creating all sorts of shapes.

Moulding the clay

Creating a heart-shape

The finished and dried ornaments

Painting a blue star

Fully coloured! (Don't ask me what a fish and brocolli has got to do with Christmas?!)

2) Christmas Star

This craft was done more out of necessity! We didn’t have a star for our mini tree so I decided to make a simple one instead of spending money to buy another overpriced ornament!

Draw outline of star on a piece of firm paper

Roll a piece of card paper into a cone shape

Paint the cone and star

Once dry, place atop tree

You can add glitter if you have time!

Origami for kids

The school holidays are upon us again – this time it’s the year end break till Jan. A long time to have both kids home with me 24/7. The first day was already rather trying, because Littlelam gets bored easily and LittlerLam gets stir-crazy easily.

So I got out some origami paper I bought from Diaso and taught Littlelam to make some pretty creations. Of course LittlerLam just kept tearing everything up so we just passed her the NG pieces. Here are some of the origami pieces we made: